Chapter 215: Sensation
The seventh day of the fifth lunar month, Sunday.
Early in the morning, after eating white porridge with cucumber peel, Deng Shirong took his six children, nephews, nieces, and their husbands to the lychee orchard to pick lychees. His daughter-in-law stayed at home to take care of the children.
At the same time, Deng Yunqiang also took his children to the lychee orchard to pick lychees.
Today was the day agreed upon by the two families to harvest their lychees. As for the lychees from Deng Changfu's father-in-law's house, they would be picked tomorrow.
Deng Shirong's family had ten laborers. Even though Deng Yunhua and Deng Yunheng were still young, the lychee trees weren't very tall, so picking lychees wasn't too difficult for them. Their picking speed wasn't much slower than the adults'.
In just over half an hour, they had picked more than twenty baskets of lychees.
Deng Shirong saw this and ordered, "Yuntai, Dashi, the rest of us can keep picking. You two start carrying the lychees home!"
Deng Yuntai and Bu Dashi responded and began carrying baskets of lychees down the mountain, then transporting them back on bicycles.
A bicycle could carry four baskets of lychees at a time, so two people could transport eight baskets in one trip, making the process quite efficient.
In comparison, Deng Yunqiang's family was much slower because they didn't have bicycles and had to carry the lychees back manually, one load at a time.
In one hour, Deng Shirong and his family picked a total of 35 baskets of lychees.
Looking at the remaining lychees, Deng Shirong said, "Okay, don't pick the rest. Save them for the family to eat slowly."
Bu Dafang glanced at the remaining lychees and said in surprise, "Uncle, we can still pick at least 300 kilograms of lychees. Should we really keep them all for eating?"
Deng Shirong replied, "Keep them. We grow so many lychees. If our family doesn't get to enjoy any, what's the point of making more money?"
Deng Yunzhen smiled and said, "Dad, don't forget we still have a straight lychee tree at home. We can pick 300 to 400 kilograms of lychees from it. Are you still worried we won't have enough to eat?"
"How can the taste of those lychees compare to Cinnamon Flavor? Tomorrow is Double Prosperity Market. We can pick them and sell them there. I think we can make some money."
"Uncle, you're so generous. Other people are eager to sell all their lychees, but you're keeping hundreds of kilograms for yourselves. It's really something."
"Alright, stop sighing. The sun's getting hotter. Hurry up and help move the lychees down!"
"…"
…
The commotion caused by Deng Shirong's and Deng Yunqiang's families picking lychees couldn't be hidden from the villagers. After hearing the news, many villagers came to Deng Shirong's house out of curiosity, wanting to see how much the lychees from these two families would sell for this year.
Especially those villagers who had followed suit and planted Cinnamon Flavor lychees were particularly concerned.
As basket after basket of lychees was brought back from Deng Shirong's and Deng Yunqiang's homes, the onlookers couldn't help but start discussing.
"Uncle Jiu's family has brought back 32 baskets of lychees. Does anyone know how much each basket weighs?"
"If the bamboo basket is full, it probably weighs about 70 to 80 kilograms!"
"Even if each basket only weighs 70 kilograms, these 32 baskets together weigh more than 2,200 kilograms. How much is the supply and marketing cooperative paying for them? Does anyone know?"
"I'm not sure. We've never sold lychees before!"
"I asked when I went to Double Prosperity Market before, and they said it was 68 cents per pound."
"That expensive? Can someone help me calculate how much these 2,200 kilograms of lychees from Uncle Jiu's family can sell for?"
"What are you thinking? The supply and marketing cooperative's purchase price is different from the retail price at the market."
"Yeah, so what's the purchase price?"
"…"
Amid the villagers' discussion, Deng Shirong and his family returned, bringing the last three baskets of lychees.
Someone immediately asked, "Uncle Jiu, have you picked all the lychees?"
Deng Shirong smiled and said, "We haven't picked all of them. We're keeping some for ourselves."
Everyone assumed that "keeping some" meant just a small amount. They probably never imagined that Deng Shirong would keep more than 300 kilograms for his family.
Someone else asked, "Uncle Jiu, what's the purchase price the supply and marketing cooperative is offering?"
"50 cents a pound."
After hearing Deng Shirong's answer, the villagers who were good at arithmetic quickly calculated a rough estimate and were thrilled. Especially those who had already planted Cinnamon Flavor lychee trees at home, they were filled with excitement.
Those who weren't as quick with numbers were shocked when they heard others calculate that 2,000 kilograms of lychees could sell for 1,000 yuan.
Earning more than 1,000 yuan in the second year of planting was simply incredible.
At this moment, the villagers who had been too afraid to take the risk and plant lychee trees were filled with regret, slapping their thighs in frustration.
After today's excitement, it was clear that every household in the village would start opening orchards and planting lychee trees.
…
At nine o'clock in the morning, a medium-sized tractor sent by the supply and marketing cooperative arrived at Deng Shirong's house, and the lychees began to be weighed and loaded.
In the end, the statistics showed that Deng Shirong's family had harvested a total of 2,658 kilograms of lychees, which were sold for 1,329 yuan.
Deng Yunqiang's family harvested a total of 3,062 kilograms of lychees, which were sold for 1,531 yuan.
Seeing the "real gold and silver" in the hands of Deng Shirong and Deng Yunqiang, the villagers present were so excited that their faces turned red.
In this era, earning 30 yuan a month and 360 yuan a year was enough to make others envious. The 1,531 yuan that Deng Yunqiang's family earned was a sum that many large families in the village couldn't earn in three years. Who wouldn't be excited seeing this?
Although planting lychees required an initial investment of several hundred yuan, it only took one year to recover the cost and make a significant profit. No family wanted to miss out on such an opportunity.
Some impatient villagers even planned to plant lychees this year.
Deng Shirong, hearing the general sentiment and thinking about the extreme weather expected this winter, couldn't help but warn, "If you want to grow lychees, you can start preparing the orchard now, but it's not recommended to plant this year. It's better to wait until the beginning of spring next year. That way, the survival rate of the seedlings will be higher."
All the villagers nodded in agreement.
If someone else had said this, the villagers might not have listened. After all, who knows if they were just trying to keep others from getting rich?
But when Deng Shirong said it, even the most anxious villagers listened.
After all, when Deng Shirong first started planting lychees, he hadn't intended to keep the profits to himself. He had suggested that everyone else plant them too. It was just that many villagers had backed out when they heard about the initial investment of several hundred yuan.
After the supply and marketing cooperative's truck took away all the lychees, the villagers dispersed.
Then, the news that Deng Shirong's and Deng Yunqiang's families had sold lychees for more than 1,300 and 1,500 yuan respectively spread like wildfire throughout the Help And Correct Brigade and even to other brigades.
In this day and age, earning more than a thousand yuan a year was incredibly attractive.
(End of this chapter)